Online Reviewers Who Blackmail Hotels And Dupe Travelers

A VIP card is making it easier for the public to threaten hotels and restaurants into giving them special treatment. Photo by AvidlyAbide.

Imagine if you could walk into a restaurant that had a line of patrons winding all the way out the door – but you could skip straight to the front of the line. And imagine if you could enter a five star hotel and instantly get a 50 percent discount – just for being you. Seem too good to be true? Well, that is exactly what a new reviewer perks program is promising its members.

ReviewerCard is a sleek black card that founder Brad Newman hopes will be the key to good service, preferential treatment, and all manner of freebies. It’s an ID card that he’s offering to “top reviewers” or people who post lots of reviews on sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp.

Newman is vetting applicants based on how many reviews they’ve written and where. He’s already doled out 100 of the cards to applicants and another 400 to journalists and marketers that he thinks “deserve” them.

The card sells for $100, but reviewers who flash their cards at hotels and other establishments are sure to get their money back many times over. And this is where things start to get really sketchy. Look at the way Newman described the card to the LA Times:

Newman provided examples of the ReviewerCard in action. He told me about the time he visited a hotel in Geneva where a room typically costs about 400 euros a night, or roughly $500 at the time.

“I took out my card and asked if I could pay 200 euros,” Newman said. “In return, I would write a great review on TripAdvisor. The woman at the hotel immediately said yes. It was a win-win for both of us.”

Yeah, but wasn’t he actually saying that he’d write a crappy review if he didn’t get that 50% discount?

“That’s one way of looking at it,” Newman replied. “But the threat would have been that if I didn’t get the rate, I’d write a one-star review. I was offering a five-star review.”

The idea that a reviewer would write a scathing review for a potentially wonderful hotel simply because it didn’t slash its prices for him is outrageous at best. At worst, it amounts to a form of blackmail.

Yes, it’s true that those who review hotels and restaurants can have an impact on whether others visit that establishment. But the last thing anyone needs is a situation where the hospitality industry is forced to its knees in order to avoid the digital destruction of its reputation. Nobody but the so-called top reviewers win: hotels and restaurants are gouged for all they’ve got, and consumers are left with a bunch of “glowing” reviews that provide little insight into what they can really expect when they visit that establishment. I don’t want to read reviews about someone’s amazing experiences that I can never recreate as an ordinary patron – I want to know what I, the average Joe, can expect. If that’s a 30-minute wait to be seated at a restaurant or a high nightly tariff on a room, so be it. At least it’s the truth and I know what I’m in for.

This brings us to another problem with the ReviewerCard – the obliteration of any trust that existed between those who write reviews and those of us who read them. The card’s founder, Brad Newman, doesn’t disclose the fact that he received special treatment, discounts, or perks in any of his reviews. So now there’s no way to be sure if that positive hotel review you read is based on a genuine experience, or on one that’s been “bought” because a hotel felt threatened by a reviewer.

It also seemingly goes against the policies of sites like Trip Advisor. The company clearly states in their guidelines that travelers should not have received any kind of inducement or monetary benefit for writing the review, and all reviewers are required to agree to the following terms:

I certify that this review is based on my own experience and is my genuine opinion of this hotel, and that I have no personal or business relationship with this establishment, and have not been offered any incentive or payment originating from the establishment to write this review. I understand that TripAdvisor has a zero-tolerance policy on fake reviews.

I honestly hope that most reviewers aren’t so desperate to be lavished with attention and freebies that they’ll stoop to blackmailing hotels and restaurants with this card. If you’re not happy with the level of service you receive when you visit an establishment, here’s a novel idea: say something. Ask to speak to a manager and tell them what went wrong. The vast majority of businesses will bend over backwards to make things right with a customer – and that to me, is the kind of place that genuinely deserves a good review.

Thanks for bringing this business and its sketchy practices to my attention. This sort of quid pro quo behavior on the parts of bloggers, social media mavens, and Yelpers has long been a problem. This new evolution seems like one that, if it catches on, will draw a lawsuit or two eventually. Also, I wonder how long it will take the FTC guidelines to catch up to this “innovation.”

I tend not to give much credence to reviews at review sites for this very reason. I look for statements about advertising, sponsorship, and disclosures on bloggers’ sites. I also read closely to see if a blogger is living up to his or her stated policy. Practicing my form of skepticism is much harder to do with online review sites who may or may not be good at enforcing their own terms of use. Is TripAdvisor still taking Brad Newman’s reviews? Sure seems like they ought to disable his account!

http://www.wanderplex.com Reena Ganga

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jenny. I agree that disclosure is an important aspect that’s missing from this whole reviewer card business. I wonder if Trip Advisor is even aware of what Newman and his card toting followers are doing. It’s clearly against TA’s policies.

Larissa Milne

It’s “travel scamming” at its worst. Even more than the reviews, I think the people who will ultimately be scammed are the ones who pay for the card. That’s the only way Newman will make any money.

http://www.theworldofdeej.com The World of Deej

When I first read about this I was angry, and I still am. I write tons of hotel and restaurant reviews on my site. He makes those of us that do it the right and honest way look no better than some guy just out for a freebie…

london_unattached

agree with the comments below, an appalling idea!

Aleah | SolitaryWanderer.com

So this is why TripAdvisor has a negative rep. Too bad, it’s really helpful for travelers. I feel for the hotel industry

Cat of Sunshine and Siestas

Agreed! My friend owns a tour company and often has to put up with the other crooks in her market who write fake reviews. For people who put their heart into making their business grow, it’s an unfortunate setback. I’ve worked on guidebooks before and always tell the manager after I’ve received a service so that I can provide honest feedback without being spoiled.

Christopher

I’m a reviewer, and I would never tell a restaurant or hotel I was. Period.

Jairey99

Trip Advisor people are either deaf or crooks. In a wedding at our place a group of drunks who had illegally acquired more than enough booze demanded to extend their party way beyond the contract limits. We refused and they wrote a nasty review in 2009! and it is still there. We contacted TA several time including certified letters. They never answered.

http://www.wanderplex.com Reena Ganga

Ugh, I’m so sorry to hear this. It’s awful that patrons are punishing businesses for not breaking the rules to accommodate their whims!

http://www.findingtheuniverse.com/ Vera

This is just so obviously wrong – escapes my mind how someone gets the idea to make a business out of it… But since I’m hearing more and more about problems/misuse of reviews, I’m pretty sure or hope that the hospitality business will soon come up with something to protect themselves against this kind of fraud!

http://www.wanderplex.com Reena Ganga

I still look at sites like yelp or TA but I take them with a grain of salt. I try to read reviews a bit more thoroughly to try and figure out exactly what people did or didn’t like about a place. If several people staying in a hotel during a particular period are saying the place had bed bugs then maybe it’s true. But if one person leaves a 1 star review complaining about random strange things like “there was no warm milk at breakfast” then something’s not right. I pretty much overlook customer service complaints in reviews too, because people seem to have the most ridiculously high expectations. It’s definitely getting harder to take the reviews at face value.

http://www.wanderplex.com Reena Ganga

That’s a great point. Disgusting that people feel they need to stoop to that level though.

http://www.wanderplex.com Reena Ganga

You’re absolutely right – things like this taint everyone else who’s trying to go about their business with honesty and integrity.